Tuesday, August 8, 2017

When? Every. Fucking. Day.

Every. Fucking. Day.

I'm making a commitment. Right now. To release a painting every day, ad infinitum. This blog post is going to be my accountability metric. These little things have gotten me places I didn't expect, so I'm just going to keep doing them. They've turned out to be a better investment than I initially thought. But how did this all get started? Most every art advisor has told me to "go big". While that's not generally bad advice, I've learned that it's the small things that count.

I didn't really set out to create pieces of diminutive art, but they were started as a way to form habitual painting practice. I got the idea after seeing how heavy some artists got for Giant Robot's Post-It Note show, where all art is created on a 3x3 inch Post-It. After wondering how much (or how little) work it would take, I created a few pieces, and it was cool! And since I'd already created a few powerup styled paintings that were relatively small, this wasn't that far of a leap for me. So the next art event that came around, I displayed the notes, and they sold! Huh.

That was nice, but it wasn't enough to get me cranking them out. I was more interested in selling larger paintings and needed to feel like an artist creating his latest masterpiece. "GO BIG!" kept ringing in my head. But I was trying be more habitual, and with the minis I saw the opportunity for a good habits to be built. So far, it's been working.

Here are some results I've seen from working on the minis:

Ideas manifest more quickly.

Concepts are explored without a heavy investment.

Public reactions to ideas are gauged/measured.

I remain in closer contact with the audience.

Processes are refined and developed faster.

The older ladies tell me, "They're fun."

Break through artists' block easier.

So while I'm doing these, I'll continue creating larger paintings. They have a feeling all their own, and I won't screw with that dynamic, but in the meantime, you can see them as they're posted: